Victoria Beckham has an infallible weapon when it comes to bewitching the hard-nosed Manhattan fashion crowd: the sight of David chasing their 18-month old daughter, Harper, through the backstage brouhaha before this show was enough to ignite a Twitterstorm of approving coos.

Yet even without the famous, photogenic family Mrs Beckham has done quite enough to merit the fashion industry's close attention. Her in-her-own-image range of sleekly fitted luxury clothes is now an established commercial success. And this collection should have excited the department store buyers every bit as much as the presence of David (who sat for the show alongside US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, prompting another Twitter eruption).

Once the lights came up, there were A-line skirt-shapes, wicked heels, drop shoulders, new trophy handbags (two of them) and plenty of lean but not-quite-tight, narrowly-belted and sophisticatedly slit dresses that saw her stay true to the fundamental Beckham fashion motifs.

The shoes, as per usual, were by Manolo Blahnik (these included a batch of fold-over patent-shine ankle boots that were stranded by snowstorm Nemo in Italy, and delivered to Beckham with only hours to spare).

"I prefer the word
mannish,
" corrected Beckham. "I wanted to translate those shapes into a feminine silhouette, so there is volume in the coats and that tuxedo shape, but turned into a gilet."

Beckham's clothes are all made in Britain, and this collection's introduction of traditional, British-milled woollens partially came about, she said: "because I am spending a lot more time in England now. And yes, I have become a bit of a material nerd."

The Beckhams recently relocated from Los Angeles to London, where her design studio is based, a development she said "that has made things a whole lot easier." She now works from the office, and has been known to recruit her husband to deliver wine and takeaways when her team are working on weekends.

So despite David's new job playing for Paris St Germain, Beckham added that there are no plans to uproot the family again: "Although I'm going to be in Paris for sure - probably not for fashion week, sadly - but I'll be going back and forth from London."